President Signs Bill Revising Welfare Law

WASHINGTON — President Reagan signed into law Thursday the first major revision of the nation`s welfare law since the system was created more than 50 years ago.

In ceremonies in the Rose Garden, Reagan capped a two-year effort to overhaul the chaotic welfare system and to fulfill a 1986 pledge to find a substitute that would lead to ``lasting emancipation from welfare

dependency.``

The Family Support Act of 1988 replaces the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, the centerpiece of the welfare system, and the Work Incentive Program, known as WIN. It is expected to cost $3.6 billion over the next five years.

A key provision of the new bill, passed with bipartisan support in Congress, requires one parent in each two-parent family on welfare to work at least 16 hours a week as a condition for receiving benefits. Another requirement forces single welfare parents with children under age 3, as young as 1 in some states, to further their education or take job training.

Reagan said: ``The Family Support Act says to welfare parents, `We expect of you what we expect of ourselves and our own loved ones.` That you will do your share in taking responsibility for your life and for the lives of the children you bring into this world.``

AFDC was created by the Social Security Act of 1935. Many of its regulations, such as allowing a cutoff of benefits to families with an unemployed father in the home, have been strongly criticized by supporters and opponents of the welfare system.

The new law has been criticized by liberals who contend that the reform didn`t go far enough and by conservatives who complain that some recipients will end up in community service jobs that don`t lead to full-time work.

Robert Rector, a policy analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the such jobs have ``never been effective in improving the lives of welfare recipients.`` He called them ``a gold-plated fraud.``

The American Public Welfare Association, which represents 50 state human service departments, praised the bill Thursday as ``major progress for the poor children and the families we serve.`` But grass-roots groups, such as the Children`s Defense Fund and the Child Welfare League of America, strongly opposed the new law.

``The workfare provisions are particularly punitive for families who have lost their jobs and are on welfare,`` said Tess Scannell, a senior policy analyst for the Child Welfare League. ``People with experience in the labor force don`t need to work 16 hours just to get experience. They already have experience. What they need is retraining and another job.``

Susan Rees, executive director of the Coalition on Human Needs, which represents more than 100 national organizations, said many parents will be forced to leave home without having adequate day care for their children.

``There will be tremendous pressure on our day care system,`` she said.

``There are not adequate facilities in place to service the large number of people who will be required to work. There are already long waiting lists in most places.

``I expect there will be greater reliance on in-home care, which is often unregulated and provide the most horror stories about abused children.``

Critics of the new law note that there are no provisions for increasing welfare benefits or correcting the wide discrepancies between what recipients receive in various states.